I know this is bait but who said they had the same-sized pizzas?
One could be XL the other one a personal pizza.
Kid gave a reasonable answer without all the math bullshit
Submitted 2 months ago by Mickey7@lemmy.world to [deleted]
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/4e1356c0-88bb-4620-9340-d063ba584e51.png
Comments
henfredemars@infosec.pub 2 months ago
tauren@lemm.ee 2 months ago
I know this is bait but who said they had the same-sized pizzas?
That’s a base assumption when you compare fractions in these word problems.
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 2 months ago
Assumptions make an ass out of you but not me
Rooty@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Ahh, fractions and word problems, the bane of my education (seriously, why do we bother with fractions when decimals are easier to compute and express?)
gerryflap@feddit.nl 2 months ago
Imo fractions are way more simple in many cases than decimal numbers. Saying 1/3rd is way more useful than hitting someone with the 0.33333333333333… Quick mental computations with fractions are also simpler in this case. Though this question (and questions like it) seem useless to me indeed.
Anti_Iridium@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I mean I understand, but in the case of .33333333333333… isnt it actually represented as “point three repeating”
A_Chilean_Cyborg@feddit.cl 2 months ago
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who says, 5/6 is easy to mentally understand than 0.83־.
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is a reasonable way to start thinking about arithmetics, and basically to start doing simple math IMO.
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Jamablaya@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Man, if you can’t understand fractions, you don’t actually understand the math, you’re just trained to use a formula.
Rooty@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I understand fractions, I simply doubt their utility.
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 2 months ago
The higher the level of the course I was taking, the less test markers cared about the actual final answer. If you used the correct equations, simplifying the final answer to a faction rather than a decimal or leaving constants like pi and e in there was good enough for full marks.
Generally more accurate, too, because you’re not rounding the number but leaving it as the true value because 1/3 != 0.333333. It’s better to do it this way if there’s multiple steps, too, since you can gather or cancel out like terms if you leave them as variables instead of converting and rounding to some decimal.
jj4211@lemmy.world 2 months ago
People have already commented on fractions, there’s a lot of math that is way easier to keep accurate by leaving in fractional form as it goes.
For word problems, done correctly, the math is pointless if you can’t map it to more realistic scenarios. In terms of applying math to the real world, it’s supremely rare that the world just spits out the equation ready for you to solve, the ability to distill a scenario described by prose to a mathemetical solution is critical. Problem is when they are handled incorrectly and have ambiguous solutions or parameters, but dealing with kids’ homework, this is pretty rare, though it’s admittedly utterly infuriating when it comes up.
varnia@feddit.org 2 months ago
The statement and the question do not make any kind of sense. Would make more sense to ask who ate more pizza when one ate 2/3 and another one ate 3/4 of an equally sized pizza.
JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 months ago
⅔x > ¾y when x > 1⅛y. The question helps you parse word problems.
littletranspunk@lemmus.org 2 months ago
If I ate 1/4 of my pizza and my gf ate 1/1 of her pizza, but the hidden context is mine is from Costco and hers is from mod, who ate more pizza
FeelzGoodMan420@eviltoast.org 2 months ago
So this was a trick question? Because the student’s answer is correct. That’s the only way it’s possible. Was the answer supposed to be that it’s not possible? I’m a grown adult and I find this question unclear so I’m surprised this was asked to a young child in this way.
Marleyinoc@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Well the teacher’s answer is flat out wrong which doesn’t surprise me at all.
GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world 2 months ago
reasonableness
Every time this gets reposted, everyone misses this first word.
This isn’t a maths question.
It’s asking the student to read the question and make an observation if it’s a reasonable question and answer.
And with the information provided it’s not.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
But it’s perfectly reasonable for Marty to order the bigger pizza because he is a greedy bastard.
chunes@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I’m sorry, what? There is precisely nothing unreasonable about this question. It has a correct answer that can be found with basic logic
Hawk@lemmynsfw.com 2 months ago
Yeah, most pizzerias sell many sizes. Both answers are valid.
In fact, i would argue making an assumption, in this case about size, without declaring it, is in fact less reasonable.
red_bull_of_juarez@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
The writing looks like first or second grade. Where do they teach fractions in that grade?
AugustWest@lemmy.world 2 months ago
That looks like my writing now, and I’m in my 30s.
Mesophar@pawb.social 2 months ago
Damn, hope you graduate to Third Grade by 40!
bluewing@lemm.ee 2 months ago
As a very old lefty, I wish my handwriting looked that good.
bluewing@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Boys in particular, (though girls are not exempt from poor handwriting), will have “poor” penmanship pretty much all through elementary school and even into Jr High. And fractions are generally introduced at the end of the 3rd grade school year. And based on the question, that’s the likely grade level that test was created for.
I would bet that most of the students in that class got the answer correct because they were coached to read the question correctly-- to look for the fractions and simply compare them. And anyone else that didn’t, simply chose the wrong answer. Still, you will get a surprise answer like that every once in a while because kids are cool like that. It’s worth a chuckle as you move on.
lechekaflan@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Curriculum and unappetizing methods of teaching are the problems.
This kid has the right to question, to speak out what’s really logical, and is likely to be more street-wise.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Is there any reason at face value why the teacher’s answer is correct? From my perspective the teacher is an idiot and missing some basic math skills.
infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
The question literally says “Marty ate more pizza”. It’s a foundational fact that you’re given as a part of the problem. If the answer was the say “Actually, no he didn’t” then you might as well answer “No, he actually at 1/6 of his pizza”.
Artemis_Mystique@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
no way “marty ate more” with the information given.
that is the ‘Expected’ answer
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 2 months ago
So this is sort of a true/false math problem given to us, the viewer, out of context.
GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world 2 months ago
reasonableness
This is likely a question about some topic on reasonable questions and answers, rather than a maths question.
humorlessrepost@lemmy.world 2 months ago
If I saw two people order different sizes of pizzas, my mind wouldn’t be blown, and nobody would consider the situation unreasonable.
remon@ani.social 2 months ago
No. Within the parameters of the question it IS possible and the kid gave the correct answer.
A small fraction of X can have a bigger absolute value then a large fraction of Y when X is suffienctly larger then Y.
Deceptichum@quokk.au 2 months ago
Cancel that teachers staff pizza party in lieu of a payrise pass.
zebidiah@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
You know we wouldn’t even really need fractions if it wasn’t for your stupid inches and feet right?
Metric countries have no real use for them
leadore@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I sincerely hope that was a joke…
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 1 month ago
don’t worry. they’re only 1/2 as intelligent as 50% of average morons.
yarr@feddit.nl 2 months ago
This post shows the difference between school and education. The school system is there to get a child to be able to regurgitate whatever the lesson says they should. Education is to develop knowledge as a whole.
It is sad that the teacher was not even able to consider the flawed nature of the question, because they are trained to just see if the student’s answer matches the answer key for the test.
In many cases, the public education system no longer exists to deliver educated graduates. It exists to feed itself – to obtain funding for itself the next year and to support a gradually expanding set of “administrators” that add little to the process.
Look at the effects of “No Child Left Behind”. NCLB pushed test scores above all else. What did we get? A bunch of students that were very good at passing standardized tests. That does not necessarily translate to a better educational outcome. The value in the skill of passing standardized tests plummets rapidly once one joins the workforce.
Steve@communick.news 2 months ago
I had situations like this at least a few times a year in school.
I usually managed to convince the teacher I was right.And yah this kid is almost certainly ND.
Not just the answer, but the handwriting screams dysgraphia. It looks a lot like mine.jj4211@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Or the kid just understands the given scenario and prioritized coming up with a valid answer instead of assuming the question is bad. You don’t have to be ND to be thoughtful/observant or to be surprised that the question expected to be called out as wrong that early.
On the handwriting, it could be that, or it could be typical elementary school handwriting. Or someone imitating elementary school writing for internet points in a fake math question.
CannedYeet@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Marty ate some of someone else’s pizza
y0kai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
This is literally a trick question.
JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 months ago
No it’s not, it’s rage bait.
tauren@lemm.ee 2 months ago
The question is stupid, but the kid’s answer is still wrong.
remon@ani.social 2 months ago
How is it wrong?
tauren@lemm.ee 2 months ago
It’s a basic assumption in these word problems. For instance, when they ask you to compare 2/4 and 2/8, you know that you can transform 2/4 to 4/8 and see that it’s greater than 2/8. It’s a basic school program, there are no tricks here. It’s a pure math exercise.
psud@aussie.zone 1 month ago
This reminds me of a much more reasonable bad teacher from my childhood, which I still remember as unfair
We had been learning the vowels, which in one thing were listed as a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y, among others with the just the five most common ones
So days later when we had a quiz my answer to which letters are vowels was a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y. I got a red x, with “and sometimes y” crossed out. I don’t think we were given points but it felt like zero points.
TurboHarbinger@feddit.cl 1 month ago
How ruined the question
alessandro@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Neither is right: written text is not people, and text without people is either right or wrong until someone read. Only people reading can make the text true, also, you’re a moron.
…it’s just a joke, jeeeez.
NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 2 months ago
Reminds me of the stack of frozen mini pizzas you could get in the 80s.
Iambus@lemmy.world 1 month ago
This is genuinely baffling. What was that teacher on.